You are here: Home / Statistics / Labour Market Churn Q2 2026 / Results and Analysis

Labour Market Churn Q2 2026

Results and Analysis

The job churn rate for Q2 2026 was 10.7%, down 0.3 percentage points on the same period in 2025

Online ISSN: 2990-8272

CSO statistical release, 27 August 2026, 11am

A CSO Frontier Series Output

This release is categorised as a CSO Frontier Series Output. Particular care must be taken when interpreting the statistics in this release as it may use new methods which are under development and/or data sources which may be incomplete, for example new administrative data sources.

The highest job churn rate was recorded in the Administrative & Support Service Activities sector (21.3%) in Q2 2026

The lowest churn rate in Q2 2026 was observed in Services at 4.8% followed by Information and Communication and Financial, Insurance and Real Estate Activities both at 6.7%.

Accommodation and Food Service Activities recorded the highest job churn in the quarter at 50,062.

Accommodation & Food Service Activities had the highest number of hirings (49,509).

The sector that saw the highest number of job creations in Q2 2026 was the Education sector (31,881), a decrease of 0.1% (24) from a year earlier.

Wholesale and Retail Trade; Repair of Motor Vehicles and Motorcycles had the highest number of separations (43,631) and Wholesale and Retail Trade; Repair of Motor Vehicles and Motorcycles also had the highest number of job destructions (19,807).

Table 2.1 Job Churn and Job Churn Rate by NACE Rev.2 Economic Sector and Quarter

Table 2.1 Job Churn and Job Churn Rate by NACE Rev.2 Economic Sector and Quarter
	Job Churn						Job Churn Rate
Economic Sector (Nace Rev.2)	Q2 2024	Q2 2025	Q1 2026	Q2 2026	Quarterly Change	Annual Change	Q2 2024	Q2 2025	Q1 2026	Q2 2026	Quarterly Change	Annual Change
Economic Sector (Nace Rev.2)	Number				Number		%				pp¹
Agriculture, forestry and fishing (A)	2,794	2,310	3,504	2,582	-922	272	8.6	7.1	10.7	7.4	-3.3	0.3
Industry (B to E)	23,444	22,084	22,318	22,414	96	330	7.9	7.2	7.2	7.1	-0.1	-0.1
Construction (F)	16,096	16,342	16,390	17,040	650	698	11.4	11.1	10.9	10.9	0.0	-0.2
Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (G)	51,364	46,632	45,804	47,648	1,844	1,016	12.5	11.3	10.9	11.3	0.4	0.0
Transportation and storage (H)	9,282	8,920	9,502	9,042	-460	122	9.1	8.5	8.9	8.3	-0.6	-0.2
Accommodation and food service activities (I)	53,430	47,052	50,202	50,062	-140	3,010	21.2	18.9	20.3	19.4	-0.9	0.5
Information and communication (J)	8,846	9,060	11,306	9,616	-1,690	556	6.5	6.7	8.2	6.7	-1.5	0.0
Financial, insurance and real estate activities (K,L)	9,452	9,114	10,940	9,622	-1,318	508	7.0	6.6	7.7	6.7	-1.0	0.0
Professional, scientific and technical activities (M)	18,032	14,992	16,128	15,080	-1,048	88	9.9	8.4	8.9	8.3	-0.6	-0.1
Administrative and support service activities (N)	53,174	48,270	50,158	47,954	-2,204	-316	27.3	24.6	25.3	21.3	-4.0	-3.3
Public administration and defence; compulsory social security (O)	13,996	18,634	17,678	17,542	-136	-1,092	9.7	12.8	11.8	11.8	0.0	-1.0
Education (P)	22,194	23,846	35,432	24,208	-11,224	362	8.1	8.5	13.1	8.4	-4.7	-0.1
Human health and social work activities (Q)	32,670	33,686	40,154	33,444	-6,710	-242	8.3	8.3	9.8	7.7	-2.1	-0.6
Arts, entertainment, recreation and other service activities (R,S)	11,342	11,370	12,316	11,986	-330	616	11.6	11.3	12.2	11.4	-0.8	0.1
Services (T,U)	138	26	18	24	6	-2	12.4	4.7	3.6	4.8	1.2	0.1
Not stated	66	32	72	66	-6	34	4.4	2.3	4.6	3.8	-0.8	1.5
All Economic Sectors	326,320	312,370	341,922	318,330	-23,592	5,960	11.7	11.0	12.0	10.7	-1.3	-0.3
Source: CSO Labour Market Churn
¹pp refers to percentage point change

Open in Excel: Labour Market Churn Q2 2026 Table 2.1 (XLS 14KB)

Visit Table JCQ01 on PxStat

Table 2.2 Hirings and Stayers by NACE Rev.2 Economic Sector and Quarter (number)

Table 2.2 Hirings and Stayers by NACE Rev.2 Economic Sector and Quarter (number)
	Hirings						Stayers
Economic Sector (Nace Rev.2)	Q2 2024	Q2 2025	Q1 2026	Q2 2026	Quarterly Change	Annual Change	Q2 2024	Q2 2025	Q1 2026	Q2 2026	Quarterly Change	Annual Change
Agriculture, forestry and fishing (A)	5,289	4,776	5,523	5,555	32	779	28,306	28,866	27,597	30,076	2,479	1,210
Industry (B to E)	23,136	20,875	22,795	22,403	-392	1,528	278,232	287,134	286,884	292,275	5,391	5,141
Construction (F)	19,060	19,287	20,218	22,186	1,968	2,899	123,914	129,767	131,639	136,454	4,815	6,687
Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (G)	42,205	39,292	37,979	39,731	1,752	439	368,678	373,172	382,072	376,913	-5,159	3,741
Transportation and storage (H)	9,180	8,613	8,632	9,219	587	606	93,461	96,437	98,805	99,832	1,027	3,395
Accommodation and food service activities (I)	52,081	43,948	44,316	49,509	5,193	5,561	207,834	208,190	205,509	215,522	10,013	7,332
Information and communication (J)	11,162	11,794	14,627	13,389	-1,238	1,595	126,665	125,783	124,098	126,699	2,601	916
Financial, insurance and real estate activities (K,L)	10,384	10,789	10,366	10,120	-246	-669	125,535	128,804	130,643	132,993	2,350	4,189
Professional, scientific and technical activities (M)	20,638	16,395	16,682	18,271	1,589	1,876	164,924	163,409	161,858	164,272	2,414	863
Administrative and support service activities (N)	39,207	33,938	38,744	39,897	1,153	5,959	158,045	163,412	161,865	172,014	10,149	8,602
Public administration and defence; compulsory social security (O)	14,536	12,134	10,633	11,864	1,231	-270	132,473	133,812	136,561	137,836	1,275	4,024
Education (P)	41,823	43,828	27,664	43,985	16,321	157	244,674	250,130	244,125	257,803	13,678	7,673
Human health and social work activities (Q)	32,599	34,779	35,094	42,559	7,465	7,780	363,421	375,002	377,650	386,971	9,321	11,969
Arts, entertainment, recreation and other service activities (R,S)	15,398	15,244	11,943	17,057	5,114	1,813	84,988	87,294	88,363	90,233	1,870	2,939
Services (T,U)	204	46	51	49	-2	3	956	500	447	451	4	-49
Not stated	270	244	316	415	99	171	1,266	1,161	1,292	1,381	89	220
All Economic Sectors	337,172	315,982	305,583	346,209	40,626	30,227	2,503,372	2,552,873	2,559,408	2,621,725	62,317	68,852
Source: CSO Labour Market Churn

Open in Excel: Labour Market Churn Q2 2026 Table 2.2 (XLS 12KB)

Visit Table JCQ01 on PxStat

Table 2.3a Separations by NACE Rev.2 Economic Sector and Quarter (number)

Table 2.3b Breakdown of Separations of Primary Employments by NACE Rev.2 Economic Sector, Q2 2026 (number)

Table 2.4 Job Creation and Destruction by NACE Rev.2 Economic Sector and Quarter (number)

Table 2.4 Job Creation and Destruction by NACE Rev.2 Economic Sector and Quarter (number)
	Job Creation						Job Destruction
Economic Sector (Nace Rev.2)	Q2 2024	Q2 2025	Q1 2026	Q2 2026	Quarterly Change	Annual Change	Q2 2024	Q2 2025	Q1 2026	Q2 2026	Quarterly Change	Annual Change
Agriculture, forestry and fishing (A)	3,892	3,621	3,771	4,264	493	643	1,613	1,752	3,173	1,759	-1,414	7
Industry (B to E)	11,414	9,833	11,636	11,196	-440	1,363	5,314	6,619	6,525	5,036	-1,489	-1,583
Construction (F)	11,012	11,116	12,023	13,666	1,643	2,550	6,893	7,040	8,244	6,829	-1,415	-211
Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (G)	16,523	15,976	15,077	15,907	830	-69	16,799	19,888	14,754	19,807	5,053	-81
Transportation and storage (H)	4,539	4,153	3,881	4,698	817	545	2,787	2,838	3,431	2,941	-490	103
Accommodation and food service activities (I)	25,366	20,422	19,215	24,478	5,263	4,056	10,383	13,575	13,246	9,378	-3,868	-4,197
Information and communication (J)	6,739	7,264	8,974	8,581	-393	1,317	4,574	4,586	8,129	6,422	-1,707	1,836
Financial, insurance and real estate activities (K,L)	5,658	6,232	4,896	5,309	413	-923	2,808	2,857	3,225	3,172	-53	315
Professional, scientific and technical activities (M)	11,622	8,899	8,618	10,731	2,113	1,832	5,322	5,540	15,606	5,410	-10,196	-130
Administrative and support service activities (N)	12,620	9,803	13,665	15,920	2,255	6,117	8,060	7,747	9,203	6,882	-2,321	-865
Public administration and defence; compulsory social security (O)	7,538	2,817	1,794	3,093	1,299	276	1,679	2,308	7,027	602	-6,425	-1,706
Education (P)	30,726	31,905	9,948	31,881	21,933	-24	2,788	2,269	6,003	2,147	-3,856	-122
Human health and social work activities (Q)	16,264	17,936	15,017	25,837	10,820	7,901	7,821	8,034	6,551	8,863	2,312	829
Arts, entertainment, recreation and other service activities (R,S)	9,727	9,559	5,785	11,064	5,279	1,505	4,267	4,901	7,358	4,671	-2,687	-230
Services (T,U)	135	33	42	37	-5	4	37	38	46	35	-11	-3
Not stated	237	228	280	382	102	154	167	143	183	147	-36	4
All Economic Sectors	174,012	159,797	134,622	187,044	52,422	27,247	81,312	90,135	112,704	84,101	-28,603	-6,034
Source: CSO Labour Market Churn

Open in Excel: Labour Market Churn Q2 2026 Table 2.4 (XLS 12KB)

Visit Table JCQ01 on PxStat

The firm size with the highest job churn rate in Q2 2026 were those with 50-249 employees

The firm size with the highest job churn rate in Q2 2026 was the 50-249 employee group, where the job churn was 14.3%, up from 13.9% in Q2 2025.

The firm size with the lowest job churn rate in Q2 2026 was the 1-9 employee group, where the job churn rate was 5.5%, down from 5.6% in Q2 2025.

In Q2 2026 only firms with 50-249 employees observed an increase in the job churn rate when compared with Q2 2025.

Looking at job destructions, firms with up to 49 employees accounted for 62.0% of all job destructions in Q2 2026 (52,166). This was an increase on Q2 2025, when firms of this size were made up of 60.7% of job destructions (54,704).

The group of enterprises that made up the largest number of destructions by firm size was the 1 to 9 employees’ group. This group made up 40.6% of destructions in Q2 2026 (34,187), up from 38.5% of all destructions 12 months ago (34,710).

Table 2.5 Job Churn and Job Churn Rate by Firm Size and Quarter

Table 2.6 Hirings and Stayers by Firm Size and Quarter (number)

Table 2.7 Separations by Firm Size and Quarter (number)

Table 2.8 Job Creation and Destruction by Firm Size and Quarter (number)

Irish-owned enterprises accounted for 78.3% of the job churn in Q2 2026

In Q2 2026 there were 2,967,934 recorded employments, Irish-owned affiliates accounted for highest proportion at 76.4% followed by Foreign-owned affiliates owned by non-EU multinationals at 18.6% and Foreign-owned affiliates owned by EU multinationals at 5.0%.

There were 84,101 job destructions in Q2 2026, a decrease of 6,034 (6.7%) when compared with the previous year. The number of jobs destroyed was highest among Irish-owned enterprises which accounted for 75.0% (63,096) of the total figure.

Job churn rate for Irish-owned enterprises in Q2 2026 was 11.2%, a decrease of 0.1 percentage points when compared with a year earlier. All Foreign-owned enterprises saw a decrease of 0.8 percentage points, from 10.2% in Q2 2025 to 9.4% in Q2 2026.

Table 2.9 Job Churn and Job Churn Rate by Nationality of Enterprise Ownership and Quarter

Table 2.10 Hirings and Stayers by Nationality of Enterprise Ownership and Quarter (number)

Table 2.11 Separations by Nationality of Enterprise Ownership and Quarter (number)

Table 2.12 Job Creation and Destruction by Nationality of Enterprise Ownership and Quarter (number)

Next chapter: Data

Why you can Trust the CSO

Learn about our data and confidentiality safeguards, and the steps we take to produce statistics that can be trusted by all.

go to trust & transparency

Contact us

Central Statistics Office
Skehard Road, Cork T12 X00E, Ireland

Tel:

(+353) 21 453 5000

E-Mail:

information@cso.ie

Careers

You can count on a rewarding career with the CSO.

Learn about our variety of roles and the benefits of working with the CSO.

Table 2.3a Separations by NACE Rev.2 Economic Sector and Quarter (number)
	Separations
Economic Sector (Nace Rev.2)	Q2 2024	Q2 2025	Q1 2026	Q2 2026	Quarterly Change	Annual Change
Agriculture, forestry and fishing (A)	3,010	2,907	4,925	3,050	-1,875	143
Industry (B to E)	17,036	17,661	17,684	16,243	-1,441	-1,418
Construction (F)	14,941	15,211	16,439	15,349	-1,090	138
Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (G)	42,481	43,204	37,656	43,631	5,975	427
Transportation and storage (H)	7,428	7,298	8,182	7,462	-720	164
Accommodation and food service activities (I)	37,098	37,101	38,347	34,409	-3,938	-2,692
Information and communication (J)	8,997	9,116	13,782	11,230	-2,552	2,114
Financial, insurance and real estate activities (K,L)	7,534	7,414	8,695	7,983	-712	569
Professional, scientific and technical activities (M)	14,338	13,036	23,670	12,950	-10,720	-86
Administrative and support service activities (N)	34,647	31,882	34,282	30,859	-3,423	-1,023
Public administration and defence; compulsory social security (O)	8,677	11,625	15,866	9,373	-6,493	-2,252
Education (P)	13,885	14,192	23,719	14,251	-9,468	59
Human health and social work activities (Q)	24,156	24,877	26,628	25,585	-1,043	708
Arts, entertainment, recreation and other service activities (R,S)	9,938	10,586	13,516	10,664	-2,852	78
Services (T,U)	106	51	55	47	-8	-4
Not stated	200	159	219	180	-39	21
All Economic Sectors	244,472	246,320	283,665	243,266	-40,399	-3,054
Source: CSO Labour Market Churn

Table 2.3b Breakdown of Separations of Primary Employments¹ by NACE Rev.2 Economic Sector, Q2 2026 (number)
	Separations of Primary Employments
Economic Sector (Nace Rev.2)	Same² Economic Sector	Different³ Economic Sector	No longer employed⁴	Total
Agriculture, forestry and fishing (A)	168	348	1,309	1,825
Industry (B to E)	595	2,356	7,465	10,416
Construction (F)	1,344	2,172	6,077	9,593
Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (G)	2,894	3,174	17,284	23,352
Transportation and storage (H)	381	884	3,131	4,396
Accommodation and food service activities (I)	2,874	3,004	11,767	17,645
Information and communication (J)	822	986	3,850	5,658
Financial, insurance and real estate activities (K,L)	404	1,096	3,204	4,704
Professional, scientific and technical activities (M)	647	1,945	4,936	7,528
Administrative and support service activities (N)	1,312	3,635	8,902	13,849
Public administration and defence; compulsory social security (O)	116	835	2,218	3,169
Education (P)	335	1,081	4,782	6,198
Human health and social work activities (Q)	2,893	1,800	9,178	13,871
Arts, entertainment, recreation and other service activities (R,S)	491	1,329	4,438	6,258
Services (T,U)	0	2	22	24
Not stated	10	66	68	144
All Economic Sectors	15,286	24,713	88,631	128,630
Source: CSO Labour Market Churn
¹Any additional employments have been excluded
²Employees who have changed employer but stayed in the same Economic Sector
³ Employees who have changed employer and Economic Sector
⁴Employees who had an employer in the previous quarter but do not in the current quarter

Table 2.6 Hirings and Stayers by Firm Size and Quarter (number)
	Hirings						Stayers
Firm Size	Q2 2024	Q2 2025	Q1 2026	Q2 2026	Quarterly Change	Annual Change	Q2 2024	Q2 2025	Q1 2026	Q2 2026	Quarterly Change	Annual Change
1 to 9 Employees	41,256	40,734	38,651	43,812	5,161	3,078	277,549	283,624	284,649	284,802	153	1,178
10 to 49 Employees	78,841	76,224	68,707	79,783	11,076	3,559	471,544	484,815	483,455	491,191	7,736	6,376
50 to 249 Employees	77,603	73,139	70,784	83,373	12,589	10,234	478,347	489,504	486,469	506,953	20,484	17,449
250+ Employees	139,472	125,885	127,441	139,241	11,800	13,356	1,275,932	1,294,930	1,304,835	1,338,779	33,944	43,849
All employees	337,172	315,982	305,583	346,209	40,626	30,227	2,503,372	2,552,873	2,559,408	2,621,725	62,317	68,852
Source: CSO Labour Market Churn

Table 2.7 Separations by Firm Size and Quarter (number)
	Separations
Firm Size	Q2 2024	Q2 2025	Q1 2026	Q2 2026	Quarterly Change	Annual Change
1 to 9 Employees	41,922	43,795	67,065	43,267	-23,798	-528
10 to 49 Employees	51,749	51,578	62,080	49,756	-12,324	-1,822
50 to 249 Employees	52,899	51,171	52,575	52,116	-459	945
250+ Employees	97,902	99,776	101,945	98,127	-3,818	-1,649
All Employees	244,472	246,320	283,665	243,266	-40,399	-3,054
Source: CSO Labour Market Churn

Table 2.8 Job Creation and Destruction by Firm Size and Quarter (number)
	Job Creation						Job Destruction
Firm Size	Q2 2024	Q2 2025	Q1 2026	Q2 2026	Quarterly Change	Annual Change	Q2 2024	Q2 2025	Q1 2026	Q2 2026	Quarterly Change	Annual Change
1 to 9 Employees	31,999	31,649	28,040	34,732	6,692	3,083	32,665	34,710	56,454	34,187	-22,267	-523
10 to 49 Employees	45,646	44,640	35,489	48,006	12,517	3,366	18,554	19,994	28,862	17,979	-10,883	-2,015
50 to 249 Employees	35,333	34,878	31,078	42,152	11,074	7,274	10,629	12,910	12,869	10,895	-1,974	-2,015
250+ Employees	61,034	48,630	40,015	62,154	22,139	13,524	19,464	22,521	14,519	21,040	6,521	-1,481
All Employees	174,012	159,797	134,622	187,044	52,422	27,247	81,312	90,135	112,704	84,101	-28,603	-6,034
Source: CSO Labour Market Churn

Labour Market Churn Q2 2026

Results and Analysis

The job churn rate for Q2 2026 was 10.7%, down 0.3 percentage points on the same period in 2025

A CSO Frontier Series Output

The highest job churn rate was recorded in the Administrative & Support Service Activities sector (21.3%) in Q2 2026

The firm size with the highest job churn rate in Q2 2026 were those with 50-249 employees

Irish-owned enterprises accounted for 78.3% of the job churn in Q2 2026

Contents

Related

Why you can Trust the CSO

Contact us

Links

Careers

Follow us

Table 2.11 Separations by Nationality of Enterprise Ownership and Quarter (number)
	Separations
Foreign/Domestic	Q2 2024	Q2 2025	Q1 2026	Q2 2026	Quarterly Change	Annual Change
Irish-owned affiliates	191,576	189,876	232,517	187,743	-44,774	-2,133
Foreign-owned affiliates owned by EU multinationals	9,862	9,979	10,188	10,049	-139	70
Foreign-owned affiliates owned by non-EU multinationals	42,571	46,409	40,868	43,377	2,509	-3,032
All Foreign-owned affiliates	52,433	56,388	51,056	53,426	2,370	-2,962
Not Stated	463	56	92	2,097	2,005	2,041
All enterprises	244,472	246,320	283,665	243,266	-40,399	-3,054
Source: CSO Labour Market Churn